A Breaking of Heart
by Archangela
Summary: What do you learn over a shotglass of citron vodka and a tin of salt? When a handsome stranger walks into your bar and proceeds to enchant you with ever word, you learn the greatest things. Songfic to "Nature Boy" from Moulin Rouge.


AN: Ah, _Moulin Rouge, _wonderful, enchanting, heart-breaking and head-spinning. I love that movie. I would have done _Come What May_, but for a D/Hr, it's already a cliché… *sigh*

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, nor Moulin Rouge, nor this song… but you should stop snickering, because if you aren't JK Rowling or Baz Luhrmann, apparently, neither do you. Ha! I own Angel, though, since she seems to be me characterized… though that wasn't on purpose.

Dedicated to: Whoever watched Moulin Rouge and loved it. Also to the wonderful actor who played the dwarf in the nun's costume… Toulouse Latrec! Whee!

**__**

Fools and Kings

There was a boy

The bartender pushed her brown hair out of her eyes to get a better look at her latest customer. And as it seemed, this customer was worth looking at.

Tall and pale, dressed in simple yet expensive-looking clothes, with a head of finely tousled blonde hair and delicate features, the young man carried himself with the air of one who has seen more than his share of sadness. Yet around him lingered the scent and aura of knowledge and wisdom… and a slight sprinkling of pride.

The bartender smiled. Exactly what she liked in a man.

__

A very strange, enchanted boy

"Hello, and good day!" She smiled warmly as the young man seated himself on the stool directly in front of her position behind the finely polished bar. He smiled faintly at her, and asked, in a lilting drawl that conveyed no indolence, for a shot of vodka. 

Angel, for that was the bartender's name, imperceptibly raised a curious eyebrow. The stranger laughed. "I drink, but I never get drunk. Please, believe, and let me drink." She nodded, and Summoned over a glass and a bottle of her finest citron vodka. The stranger watched her pour, promising her that "I'll walk out that door as sober as I am right now." 

__

They say he wandered very far

"So… you're a new face around here." Angel pushed the shotglass and a small tin of fine salt across the smooth wood. He laughed again, soft, and slow. "I believe so. This is only the second time I've set foot in this part of the woods, and the first time I ever came here was…" The softest hint of memory entered his voice, sending it into an unconsciously soft, tenor melody. 

"A long, long time ago… when I was young and foolish."

__

Very far

"Where have you been since then?" Angel silently thanked the stars that the bar was relatively empty. She was captivated by this interesting alien, and she just couldn't pull herself away from him to deal with other customers.

Waving a slim hand as elegant as finely carved marble, the stranger drank the shot down slowly and answered her question. "Around…" He set the drink down, and nodded, as if assuring himself. He dipped a finger in the salt and put it to his dawn-tinted lips. "Yes, that's right…around the world."

__

Over land and sea

Angel Banished a margarita carefully to the sleepy old woman in the corner, then turned back to her captivating stranger. "Really… to where, may I ask?"

The stranger cocked his head, drinking her in with his dusky grey eyes. He touched her forearm with a cool finger. "You're rather tan… with bright brown eyes, and very dark hair…" He leaned closer, and Angel was still. "Hair that looks black, but…" He brought out a small mirror, edged with diamonds, positioning it so it caught the sunlight, the rays dancing on the enchanted bartender's hair. 

"Hair that's actually brown. Face structure strong and fine, yet your voice is a song with no trace of your background… which is a race influenced by the Spanish, Japanese and the Americans themselves…" The stranger leaned back in his chair, amused at the expression on the woman's face.

"Ah, you're Filipino."

__

A little shy

Angel laughed uneasily. "Correct… every single detail." She fixed him with a gaze hiding nothing, not even her awe or wonder. "What are you?"

The empty shotglass clinked softly onto the counter, and Angel automatically filled it again. "I was once the son of a prestigious wizard from one of the highest bloodlines in this country. I was to be heir to one of the largest inheritances in the whole wizarding community, and the beautiful, cold stone mansion I had lived in as a child was to be mine… someday. I had everything, riches, power, fame, and girls… _women…_"

Angel sucked in her breath. "Well, well, well…" The stranger looked up, eyes dancing. "Three holes in the ground, that is." She laughed. "I must say… but you still haven't told me your name. I'm Angel, if that will help."

The young man stared down into his half-empty glass, swirling the innocent liquid that could have passed for water into a helix. 

"I am Draco."

__

And sad of eye

He looked up again at her, and she saw that the melancholy in his beautiful eyes was more pronounced than ever. "Draco Malfoy."

Angel did a half-concealed double take. "Oh… the son of Lucius Malfoy?! Why, I wouldn't have expected, but you resemble him… er, physically, to say the least…" Draco waved away her worries. "Don't worry. No need to treat me like the arrogant, proud fool my father was… or is." He looked down at his glass. "But Lucius isn't my father anymore." 

__

But very wise was he

"What?" Angel's face screwed up into an unbecoming frown. Draco sighed softly, as if in a dream. "I believe that it was for the better. And who was I to stop him?" Angel held up a hand. "Wait, I don't understand…" Draco laughed slowly, as if conserving his mirth. "Angel… there are thousands of things, ideas, objects, contraptions, spells, witches and wizards and strangers that you and I could never understand. Why try to?" 

He touched the salt in the tin, pushing it into a mound of white snow. "But you deserve the right to know."

__

And then one day

"Lucius Disowned me. In every sense of the word." Draco studied the small pile of salt with emotionless grey eyes. Angel stepped back, overwhelmed. "Oh… but isn't that… _illegal?" _Draco pushed the shotglass towards her. "Lucius has done many illegal things in his life. This was probably one of the less critical ones… Disowning his own son."

__

One magic day

"Omigod… I'm so sorry…" Angel breathed. Draco nodded. "Thank you, but really, what's there to be sorry for?" He pointed laughingly at the overflowing glass. "Well, besides the fact that you seem to be plotting to murder me with an overdose of potent vodka." Angel set down the bottle, smiling in spite of herself.

__

He passed my way

Angel watched him lick the salt gracefully off his finger. "What did you do, then?" Draco sighed. "I went around the world, bringing my special woman with me…" Angel smiled. _Oh, so he's taken, then? _"Tell me about her." 

Draco looked up, eyes suddenly sharp. "Sorry, I'd rather not."

__

And while we spoke of many things

She held up her hands in a pacifying gesture. "Okay, that's fine…" He bent his head. "I'm sorry. She's a touchy subject. Let's talk about something else."

__

Fools and kings

And so they did. The clock ticked on, and the shadows grew ever longer, but the two souls at the bar continued to talk over a shotglass of vodka and a tin of salt. They were oblivious to time, place, and other people, choosing only each other as a companion.

__

This he said to me

A crash of shattering dreams jolted the two out of their shared reverie. Looking around, they saw an empty margarita glass lying in shards on the floor. Angel cursed magnificently, and Draco raised a cool eyebrow. "What time is it?" Angel whispered. He held up his bare wrists. "I walk without time. I find it a burden." 

Angel turned away to repair the damage, and when she turned back, Draco had his cloak back on, and the shotglass was empty once more. "Oh, you aren't going now, are you?" she pleaded. Draco smiled. "Out there…" he gestured towards the open door and the inky night outside of it. "are many more shotglasses of vodka to empty, many more tins of salt to taste and many more beautiful women to entertain… however…" Draco winked at her. "Your vodka, salt and company has been the best I ever had. Thank you."

Angel didn't ask for money. She already had all she needed. But something made her call out to him as he was stepping out the door, and out of her life. 

"Why?"

A million questions in one word. "Why me? Why did he Disown you? Why are you here? Why do you have to go?"

He smiled once more. "I can hear the questions that you are afraid to ask." Draco walked towards her, and in one swift movement, took her hands in his.

Angel looked up, into those captivatingly beautiful grey eyes. "I'm afraid to ask, because I'm afraid of what you'll answer." she whispered. Draco leaned close. "I have been schooled in the finest wizarding school in the whole of Britain. I was top of my class, and I excelled in mostly everything. And I had loved once, long ago, and paid dearly for it… but sincerely, I believe that the greatest I have ever learned, was just to love…"

He leaned closer and touched his lips to her forehead, drowning her in his scent of wisdom, rain and incense. "And to be loved in return."

There was a breath of wind, a flash of lightning and a breaking of heart, and he was gone.

__

The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love

And to be loved in return


End file.
